Ee-gad! You're probably wondering - is Fish and Chips-san dead? No, I'm not, but this story was. While I realised that I've had a year and a half gap in posting this story up, I moved from High School straight to University. It's not fun, sighs. All I want to do now is finish this story before my exams begin, which is next month, and that is not fun either.

I finally found some time in typing out how this story ends, though! I'm glad people are still reviewing this, I am very grateful!! :)

Chapter 37

Theme of Nuo

School seemed different today – no, it wasn't the journey, even though I took a different route, and went out early of the house to avoid Cherie Dhaussy, our new 'guest' – it was… the people. I felt as if I had stumbled upon St Mango's crumbling paths and buildings and horridly-dressed student faculty all over again.

Yup, I was being glared at.

Strange, considering how the past few days of school had been nothing but filled with a wonderful and cheerful, spontaneous attitude like something from Mary Poppins or the Sound of Music fired towards my direction. Today, I felt as though Mary Poppins had been kicked away and a raincloud had covered me and was showering me with constant raindrops. What was going on?

A girl stalked past me on the way uphill to the Main Office where the usual billboard was. I glanced at her as she stormed past; she looked at me from the corners of her eyes, sneered, and then quickly looked back to the front, ignoring me wholly. I stopped in my tracks, my hand clutching my bag tightly. Did… Did I do something wrong? Do I look funny?

The other students walking behind me quickly brushed past me as well, avoiding eye contact with me. They all simmered together in a tight cluster at the front of the billboard. I raised an eyebrow, then frog-marched up to the crowd.

It went deadly silent.

And when I mean deadly silence, it went so silent you could actually hear someone breathing. I swallowed, as all heads turned to me.

"U-Uh… g-good morning… student body…" My voice wavered and went all squeaky at the end of that sentence. I was awfully nervous for some reason. "What's everyone looking at??" I mumbled under my breath.

"Nuo! There you are!" A voice cried at the front of the board.

I squinted my eyes to see Tala, with a lollipop stick jutting out from his mouth. "Tala? What're you doing here? Heck, why are you always here in the morning?"

He shrugged. "Come on, you gotta see this!"

"See what?"

"Just get over here."

"Okay." I pushed past the throng of glaring people, and arrived beside Tala finally.

"Take a look." He said.

My mouth instantly dropped, and I dropped my bag. "W-WHAT THE - ?!"

There were hundreds of them – most of them were copies – there were photos of me and Ray, when we went out to the park after school. There was one with Ray pushing my rather large self on the swing, then one of us walking home…. Eek! I feel fully exposed! What's going on? Tala then tapped me on the shoulder, and when I turned to him, he gestured above.

Huh?

I followed the direction his finger was pointing at. In BIG, red lettering, it said:

NUO THE TWO-TIMER

And then I heard it; they were all whispering about me; and pointing at me and sneering, scorning, shaking their heads, and… and… and you know that awful feeling when you think people are talking about you? Well, I wasn't imagining it this time – it was really happening.

"I AM NOT A TWO TIMER!!" I shrieked furiously, turning back to the crowd of students. I looked furious and sounded absolutely furious; I swear, my ears were billowing out hot steam. "WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS?!"

Tala tried to calm me down. "Nuo, chill – it's probably photoshopped – "

No, not just that – I will have their head roasting on a spit! How dare they wrongly accuse me and Ray!

I thought I had gotten rid of my enemies. Guess I was wrong; I eyed each and every one of them individually. No-one spoke up. My face heated up, and my teeth gritted, I uncurled and curled up my fists into balls, before I screamed, pushing through the crowd, running into the main office.

………

Somehow, I don't think this is like any of the past experiences I've had fired at me deliberately. It's kind of…. Extreme.

I didn't see Ray because I only see him in interval, lunch and last period; I didn't see any of the rest of my friends since they're not in my chemistry and English class. I felt really alone. I don't know where Tala sauntered off, and thinking of where Kai was is an absolutely astronomical thought to think about.

So I didn't go to morning registration today – I've never thought of dogging a day of school and here I am huddled up on a toilet seat in the female toilets ( St Mango's High only has one toilet with about twenty cubicles) which has that unpleasant smell of off-ammonia. I dabbed at my eyes and frowned. I don't think people believe the photos were photo-shopped, heck, they weren't. Ray and I did go out – but nothing happened. I would never two-time Kai. We weren't really dating in the first place. Why am I acting up over such stupid things anyway?

Suddenly, I heard a knock on a cubicle door. "Nuo? You in there?" I was too absorbed in self-mourning that I hadn't heard the door open and footsteps echoing inside.

"Go away." I moaned, huddling up even more.

"Huh?" The voice travelled nearer towards me. "Nuo, it's me, Romance."

"Go away, Romance."

I heard her sigh and lean against the door. "Nuo, what's wrong? You're missing lessons. That's not like you."

"I don't care. Why are you here anyway?" I dribbled, wiping my nose with a tissue.

"…. I want to help."

"No thanks, I don't need your help. But thank you."

"Nuo, can you come out of there, please?" She begged, knocking on my cubicle door.

"No." I spat out to her. "Romance, you'd better get back to your own class."

"But I want to talk to you."

"…. About what?"

"… Ahh, you see, Tala wants to talk to you, actually, but he can't enter the girl's lavatory so – "

"Just get to the point." I sniffled heavily.

"He wants to know if the photos are real."

"… Yes, they are. But nothing went on between me and Ray."

Romance leant off the door. "Okay, Nuo-sama, I'll go back out and tell him. I knew you weren't like those kinds of people." I heard her trot back to the door, the squeaking hinges as she opened the door, then a muffled conversation. Then I heard her re-enter, and stop outside my cubicle. "I just told Tala. He said he'd help you find out who took the photos."

"Wha - ?"

"Nuo-sama, if you claim that you're innocent, then why are you hiding away?"

"I…" I began, before pausing. Why was I hiding? I perked up, and sighed. "I… I'm scared, Romance."

"Of what?"

"… Kai."

"Oh, Nuo-sama…"

"Hey, Romance?"

"Yes, Nuo-sama?"

"I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"For not treating you like a good friend as I should've."

She giggled. "You'll always be number one in my eyes, Nuo-sama."

At that point, I snivelled even more heavily than usual.

Romance managed to coax me out of the toilets; she wiped at my puffy red eyes with her crimson satin handkerchief and smiled, I smiled weakly back at her, and thanked her. Man, I should really treat Romance a lot better than I usually do. I felt awful inside, and I apologised to her again, but she said she'd understood. We walked back out to the corridors, and Romance had to depart to her own class. I waved to her, and then felt dreadfully lonely again when I watched her retreating back disappear into Room 213.

I walked to my own class, and pushed the door open quietly. "Sorry I'm late." I said, before making my way to my seat, trying to ignore the glares I received from almost every face in the class.

Chemistry was awful, and I regretted listening to Romance and going to class. No-one wanted to be my partner when we had to be split up into groups of two, even though the class was an odd-number because Daneira was gone…. The odd-numbered person didn't want to work with me and worked all by himself. Hearing that guy declare that out loud in class, I went bright red and ignored the look I got from the teacher, hoping the ground would swallow me up. I actually wished that Daneira's rubbish-collecting sentence was over and was here, since she's the only person I know in this class – even if she spilled chemicals all over my front on my first day of school.

I ended up working by myself, huddling over a test-tube rack with tubes containing multicoloured liquids sloshing around. I had my back turned to the rest of the class, but I could feel those dirty looks they sent me and the remarks whispering behind my back. Swallowing, I got up from my seat and walked up to the teacher's desk.

"Yes, Nuo?" The nun enquired, looking up at me from her book.

"… May I go to the bathroom?"

"….." She noticed the fact that my lip was wobbling, even though I was trying to smile at her. "… Of course, Nuo."

"Thanks." I swallowed again, before wiping at me eyes once more. I hurried out of the classroom, running back down the corridor.

I'm such an idiot! Why did I listen to Romance? Even though she meant well, I couldn't handle it. Suddenly, I spotted a similar someone at the water fountain a few feet ahead of me.

…. Kai?

"Kai!" I yelled, running up to him.

He flickered his eyes towards my direction, and then straightened back up once he was finished, releasing his finger from the button. His eyebrows furrowed, into that cold stare that he'd somehow been blessed with since birth – it's surprising he doesn't have any worry lines creasing on his forehead yet.

"Kai – I don't know what's going on," I blubbered to him quickly, "but I swear, nothing happened – Kai? Kai, where are you going? Aren't you going to…. wait - "

He'd just completely ignored me and walked away from me. I blinked at him dumbly for a few moments.

"…. Kai….?"

……..

So there I walked, looking ashen-faced and almost half-dead after suffering all that; I knew there was more to come, I just didn't think I was prepared for it yet. I arrived at my locker and opened it, before stuffing my books in glumly.

Before long, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I turned round. It was Ray. I gulped and straightened myself.

"Um, hi Ray." I mumbled out, scratching the back of my ear awkwardly. "… You shouldn't really be seen with me."

"Nuo, it's okay. I don't mind what they do or say about me. It's you I'm worried about." Ray replied; he put a hand to my forehead. "You're feeling kinda warm… You feeling okay?"

"Huh?" I moaned out, sniffling slightly again. "I dunno…"

"Listen, Tala and the rest are already on the hunt to look for the photographer. Don't be so upset. You've done nothing wrong."

"Yeah, I know. But…. People are still calling me names." I told him truthfully. My cheeks flushed visibly again.

Ray looked concerned and patted my head, and my lips contorted into a really tight, uncomfortable position too. I recognized that look – it was one of sympathy.

"Nuo, there's nothing to be ashamed of." He replied. Suddenly, he grabbed my unsuspecting hand.

I stared; rather wide-eyed. First, at my hand, then up at him. He didn't seem to notice, and his warm fingers gripped tighter around my cold, sweaty ones. My lip wobbled again. "R-Ray?!" I squeaked, still staring at our intertwined hands.

"If Kai and you weren't really going out then…. You won't be a two-timer. If you get what I mean."

I just continued staring at him blankly, and then I nodded briefly.

Ray smiled weakly, and let go of my hand. "Come on, I'll walk you down to your next class."

Eventually…

"Nuo, where are you going?" Mariam yelled at me, as she spotted me trying to leave school by climbing over the fence at the pitch.

I groaned and let my leg back down on the ground. "Mariam, what are you doing here?"

"I was just in PE. What are you doing? It's interval."

"I know that. I'm dogging school – and proud to admit it." I replied, before chucking my bag over the fence and trying to hoist a leg up on the thin wire again.

She shook her head. "I can't believe you – running away like that. Nuo, I thought you were strong."

"No, Mariam, you don't know what I've been through this hellish morning!" I told her in a matter-of-factly. "In chemistry, no-one, and I mean utterly NO-ONE, wanted to be my lab partner. When I was going to English class, people walked ten inches away from me and they were calling me names, when I was leaving English class, someone thought it was funny to throw an eraser, a ruler, a coin, their jotter, and a piece of gum at me – which by the way, FYI, didn't miss. I saw Kai and I tried to explain but he completely ignored me and walked off. I saw Ray, and I felt even more guilty than ever but I never told him that. Believe me; I think I've been strong enough up until now, right?!"

"But Nuo!" She exclaimed, "…. Don't let that beat you down, you've been through worse!"

"Yes, and that is precisely why I WANT TO GO HOME because I can't take it any longer!" I dropped down on the floor, feeling my cheats going warm again as my eyes became blurry with water. "Just let me go, Mariam." I wailed.

"… Nuo…" Mariam breathed out helplessly as I clamped my hands over my ears, eyes shut tight with tears leaking down the sides again. She put her bag down and knelt down beside me, a hand on my shoulder. "… I… I'm sorry…O-Okay, you should home. Take a break from school."

I sniffed, wiping my eyes again. "Thanks, Mariam." She helped me up, and I looked at my bag from the other side of the high fence. "Hey, Mariam?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you give me a boost?"

...

Ahh, poor Nuo. This chapter was v.v hard to type up.